CALGARY, Alta. – Hockey Canada announced Friday the 25 players who will represent Canada at the 2012 Spengler Cup, Dec. 26-31 in Davos, Switzerland. The roster is comprised of Canadian players currently playing in Europe, as well as players available due to the NHL lockout.

“The players we have selected today are Canadian ambassadors for the game, both in North America and Europe, and we are excited they will wear the maple leaf in Davos,” said Pascall. “These players have a wealth of international experience throughout our program, and everyone involved, from the players to our knowledgeable coaches and tremendous support staff, is looking forward to the Spengler Cup experience."

Canada’s roster for the 2012 Spengler Cup includes:

• five players who were part of last year’s team, which lost in the quarter-finals;
Brett McLean, Kurtis McLean, Pascal Pelletier, Byron Ritchie, Derrick Walser;

This year’s Spengler Cup will include Canada’s National Men’s Team, Adler Mannheim (Germany) and HC Davos (Switzerland), the host team, playing in the Cattini Group, and HC Fribourg-Gottéron (Switzerland), HC Vitkovice Steel (Czech Republic) and Salavat Yulaev Ufa (Russia) playing in the Torriani Group.

Canada opens the tournament Dec. 26 against Adler Mannheim at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. All of Canada’s games at the 2012 Spengler Cup will be broadcast on TSN or TSN2.

Canada has appeared in nine of the last 12 championship games, winning the Spengler Cup in 2002, 2003 and 2007. Overall, Canada’s National Men’s Team has won the Spengler Cup 11 times (1984, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2007) since first taking part in the tournament in 1984.

The Spengler Cup, held annually since 1923, is the oldest professional international hockey tournament in the world.